A brief look at the best PSP emulators

Video games and emulators are like peanut butter and chocolate. The two go hand in hand. Or at least that used to be the mentality. No matter what console you’re interested in, chances are you’ll be able to download an emulator for it, no matter how obscure or archaic. Of course, as the technology improves, it becomes harder and harder to create working emulators, but that doesn’t mean that developers have stopped trying.

Perhaps the most sophisticated game system that has a fairly robust emulation history is Sony’s PSP handheld. Recently, a working PSP emulator was actually made available on Android. That emulator, known as PPSSPP, is already capable of playing a handful of PSP titles including Puzzle Bobble Deluxe, Puyo Pop Fever, and Pinball Fantasies.

PPSSPP also doesn’t just work on Android. It is also available for PCs and has been ported to Blackberry devices as well. It is the rising star in the world of PSP emulators.

Before there was PPSSPP, there was JPCSP, a Java-based PSP emulator with the strongest compatibility. Of course it is far from being perfect, but it has successfully emulated everything from basic PSP titles like Puzzler Collection to sophisticated RPGs like Astonishia Story.

JPCSP is not without its flaws, though. One quirk is that the emulator has problems with game saves. It also requires users to have some technical know-how such as configuring the PC to certain specifications such as audio codecs, and knowing how to decrypt the game files.

One of the more user-friendly PSP emulators is the one created by a user with the handle Soywiz. The Soywiz PSP emulator has a pretty robust game compatibility list, including puzzle game sensation Lumines and Japanese RPG Tales of Eternia. Its list of compatible titles is not as strong as JPCSP, however.

In addition, updates to the Soywiz emulator are not as frequent, and some of the PSP titles that run smoothly on JPCSP have buggy issues on the Soywiz platform. Nevertheless, it is easier for users to set up and as such would be a more ideal solution for novice emulator fans wanting to try out a PSP emulator.

For historical value, it’s also worth mentioning PSP Player, which is believed to be the first PSP emulator available for PCs. It has been around for more than five years and offers some compatibility that the more recent PSP emulators don’t. In addition, some of the more common titles to see on emulators, like Puzzle Bobble Pocket, run more smoothly and seamlessly on PSP Player than the newer emulators.

Because of a poorly developed vision and marketing strategy by Sony, the PSP did not see a lot of commercial success but there are tons of games for the device, a lot of which gained significant critical acclaim. That is why the PSP emulator scene is so interesting, and probably will continue to be after official support for the system dies.